


Overheated

by Twice_before_Friday



Series: October? No, I think you mean Whumptober [14]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, Sauna, Trapped, Whump, heat exhaustion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27006277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twice_before_Friday/pseuds/Twice_before_Friday
Summary: Prompt No 14. IS SOMETHING BURNING?Branding |Heat Exhaustion| Fire"Help!" Malcolm yells, lungs burning as he gasps in a breath of hot air. "Someone help! We're trapped in the sauna!!"
Series: October? No, I think you mean Whumptober [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947595
Comments: 16
Kudos: 57
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Overheated

Malcolm pounds on the door, fist slamming so hard against the wooden planks that he's certain to be bruised come morning. It doesn't matter, though, because he needs to get them out. Now.

It's already been nearly half an hour and he knows they're approaching the point where things go from uncomfortable to downright dangerous. He's already feeling lightheaded and nauseous, and, though Dani hasn't said a word in complaint, he knows she's feeling the same; he can read it in the tight pull of her lips, in the way she hunches over where she sits on the bench across the small room.

"Help!" Malcolm yells, lungs burning as he gasps in a breath of hot air. "Someone help! We're trapped in the sauna!!"

"Bright," Dani says quietly, using her discarded blouse to wipe the sweat from her face. They've both stripped down to their underwear in an attempt to avoid heat exhaustion, but it's been long enough at this point that even losing the barrier of their clothes isn't helping. "No one is out there. You're just wasting energy."

She's not wrong. But he can't just sit there waiting to die.

So he throws himself against the door, trying desperately to ignore the voice in his head that reminds him of the four victims in the morgue who probably died in this very room; who likely banged on this same door, trying to break free, until their bodies gave out and their brains overheated to the point that they stopped functioning all together.

He only stops after throwing his shoulder into the door hard enough to hear a disconcerting pop from the socket and feel a sharp pain radiating out from the joint.

Taking a break, he decides abruptly, is not the same as giving up. He plops down on the bench next to Dani, holding onto his injured arm to keep it from swinging as he moves. 

The problem with settling down, though, is that he starts to realize how truly terrible he feels. His head is pounding, his heart is racing, and he's pretty sure he's going to throw up the meager contents of that morning's breakfast soon. And beyond all of that, it feels like he's sucking fire into his lungs with every heaving breath he takes.

"How are you holding up?" Malcolm angles his head towards Dani but lets his eyes flutter closed. They ache from the heat, too.

"Better than you," she says, concern lacing the words and taking away their sting. "I'm still sweating, at least." She leaves the, "You're not," unsaid, but it comes through clearly in the quiet space nonetheless. 

It's another of the many, many things he's trying to ignore right now. He knows his lack of sweat means he's dehydrated, which not only spells out danger for his internal organs, but also means his body no longer has the ability to regulate his temperature.

He's not going to survive if they don't find a way out soon.

"We need to find a way out," he says through the exhaustion that's pulling him down like too much gravity.

"No shit," Dani says, rubbing a hand over her forehead in a way that suggests her headache is getting worse. "Any ideas that don't involve dislocating any more shoulders?"

Unfortunately, throwing himself at the door was quite literally his only idea (though he doesn't think his shoulder is actually dislocated. He knows what that feels like and this doesn't hurt nearly so bad). The killer disabled the emergency shut off switch, and the sauna might as well be a cell at Claremont for how secure it is. Looking at the shut off switch, though, he wonders if the killer merely disconnected the button or if he sabotaged it completely. 

Maybe…

"Do you have a dime on you?" Malcolm asks, slowly pushing up to his feet and grabbing onto the wall when he sways dangerously.

Dani tugs her jeans over, digging her finger in the tiny pocket and pulling out half a dozen coins; change from her morning coffee. Malcolm plucks a dime from her palm and makes his way to the switch on the wall, immediately using the dime in place of a screwdriver to loosen the screws.

His mind begins to wander as he slowly works the screws holding the plate on, but he snaps back to himself as he pulls out the last screw and the faceplate falls to the floor with a clatter. He looks at the gaping space behind, taking in the mess of wires and tries to remember what he was doing.

"Bright? You good?" Dani asks, sliding up next to him. He must've been standing there, staring, long enough that she got concerned. She lays a hand on his arm and a tiny gasp escapes her lips, her grip tightening on his bicep. "Bright, your skin is cold," she says, "that's not a good thing, is it?"

It feels like her hand is burning him where her skin is pressed to his, but it reminds him of what he was doing. Reminds him what's at stake. It may be hitting him harder (which is not at all surprising considering he lives in a constant state of dehydration, while Dani is often sipping at a bottle of water at her desk or in her car), but given enough time, Dani will reach the same borderline desperate state he's falling into, and he needs to get them out before that happens.

He's not a hundred percent sure what he's doing. He's honestly not even forty percent sure what he's doing. But he works the wires until one of them zaps him, dropping him to the ground but also halting the hum of the motor that had been providing a calming background noise since their killer locked them in.

The room is still hot, but the temperature change is perceptible almost immediately, making the room slightly more bearable. Malcolm doesn't even notice, though, as he lays on the ground, heart jackhammering in his chest and breaths puffing out in short gasps.

"Shit! Bright!" Dani yells, dropping down beside him. Her hands cup his face, tapping lightly on his cheek until he opens his eyes and looks at her. "Are you okay?"

"Di'work?" Malcolm blinks hazily up at Dani, honestly a little surprised he even remembers what he was trying to do.

Dani huffs a laugh that's clearly more relief than amusement before she answers, "Yeah, Bright. It worked. Any idea how to open the door?"

Malcolm hums noncommittally and lets his eyes slip closed. He figures he deserves a rest. And he's pretty sure his body is about to demand one, whether he likes it or not. Dani tries her best to keep him awake, but by the time there's a banging at the door and Gil's voice calling out to them, he's drifting in and out.

When the door finally opens and cool air floods into the room, it rouses him enough to realize how cold he suddenly is, and how much he doesn't care for the feeling. Before he can complain, though, he's being lifted by two sets of strong hands. 

He leans into the warmth, but soon they're moving and then his feet are on a cold tile floor while strong arms hold him upright, and he wants to be left alone but then freezing water is pelting down on him. His eyes shoot open and he sees he's in the shower area of the locker room, firmly held beneath what feels like the frigid spray of one of the shower heads.

"Hey, kid," Gil grunts, holding him still, "hang tight, we need to cool you down." 

Gil is getting soaked, too, but he doesn’t seem to care and Malcolm can't quite wrap his head around what's happening, so he keeps trying to pull away, to get out of the icy shower, but Gil just holds on tighter. Suddenly Dani is standing in front of him, soaking wet and wrapped in a towel, setting her hands on either side of his face once again.

"Bright, stop fighting, you need to cool down," Dani says, firm but not unkind.

Malcolm slowly begins to remember what happened in the sauna, and though it's still painfully uncomfortable, he stops struggling and sinks back into Gil's arms, letting the water do its job and bring down his body temperature. Dani smiles at him as soon as he stills, sliding her hands down to take hold of one of Malcolm's, and both Dani and Gil stay with him until the paramedics arrive and can take over and transport him to the hospital for treatment.

A week later, when Gil has cleared him to come back to the precinct following a brief hospital stay and a handful of days of at-home recuperation, Malcolm strolls in with a smile and heads to the conference room.

It's Dani who greets him first, a smirk on her face as she says, "JT and I are gonna spar at the gym after work, maybe spend some time in the sauna. Wanna join?"

JT's snigger accompanies Gil's good natured eye roll, the dark humour of law enforcement shining bright, especially now that they're all out of danger. It makes Malcolm feel like an authentic part of the team and his grin grows even wider as he pulls out a chair and takes the case file Gil slides his way, ready to face whatever comes next, with his team at his side.


End file.
